Apparatus for heating orchards



1931- N. w. CUMMINGS APPARATUS FOR HEATING ORCHARDS Filed May 29, 1929INVENTOR lVEPH/M C UNIV/N65 ATTOR NEYS Patented Novi.24, 1931 a i if a1,333,277 ,v

1 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

V m U Y i Gs,or 'sim snaiseanino,oiinrr g m' i 4 r H lArr AnATUsroRnnamine oaonann V dplliclaiimi fi r awe, Serial no. 56 85. I

invention relates generally tothe vlfi i fivp os cfinventionto JP T V-itificial heating of the airin fruit orchards a method of and pp s for.hating Qtin amanner to prevent the damaging effects chardsg-by which theair in the 'orchardlwill, 1:; offrost upon the fruit. Y be maintainedat'arelatively low tempera;

- -When air in an orchard is artificially heat ture sufficientl high-toprevent the damag- 55 edb means of the conventional forms ofingeffects-of 'ro'stupon the fruit so thatthe smudge pots, as isthepresent ,practice,.the quantity offuel-expendedto obtain theneces- Idensity of the air is decreased so that it rises sary heating will bereduced. to, aminimum; and is displaced belowby colder and heavier as aresult of the decreasein the influic of air from surroundingareas.However, when cold air toreplacethe heatedair and the de- I the heatedrising air reaches, a height atv crease in the-length of the column ofair a which its temperature isequalto that of the. which Inust be heatedbefore the ceiling Iis surrounding air, its upward motion is arreached,as well-as by thereduction'of radiarested and the air functions as aceiling plac tion losses to a minimum. :1

a result of being artificially heated to a preratusfunctions to createaunidirectionalciri determined temperature at. the ground level. culationof artificially;heatedairthroughout l/Vhenthe artificially heatedairreaches its predetermined areas inl'the orchardywhich V a, ceiling itspreads out laterally over adjacent air is caused to travel in the formofa vortex Mi/5H areas so that the orchard functions in;.the having arelatively flOW. ceiling," allflin 'su ch.

manner of a huge chimney creating a large manner that the influxoficold' air: will be influx of air from the surrounding areas atreduced: to a minimum andsubstantiallythe the ground level. same airheated again and again astheheat g,

It will' be clear th at i the vOIuIneofthis ing: operation progresses sothat sufficient influxof cold air-.willdependon the average heating ofthe air to prevent damage was temperature to whichthe air within. thefruit will be efl'e'cted -witha minimurn con-g I orchard i's heated,-because thehigher the sumption of fuel} f 1 :Q temperature, themorerapidwill be the up. I'will describe only one method-of andon'e wardcurrentof air over the orchard and. formof apparatusforheatingorchardsemhence the more rapid must be theinfiux of bodyingmy invention andwill-then point out,80 air from the surrounding areasto replace thenovel features thereof in claims. j therising heatedair. Moreover, ifthe aver- In the accompanying drawings,

age temperature of the artificially. heated air Fig. 1 s a view showingin plan one form in-the orchard is relatively high, the air will ofapparatus for heatingforchards embodyrise to a great height before itsupwardflow ingmy. invention, and illustrating an aris arrested and hencethe total mass ofv air rangement ofthe apparatus in an:orchard whichmust be heated. during the initiation H Fig.2is a viewjsimila'r .tOFiwland illusof the heating process willbe such as to cause crating, anotherarrangementiof the rapparai Y the wasteful use offuel-withits attendanttus shown in Fig. 1, in 'anolichard; I

x40 expense. It is therefore very desirable to FigJBisa-ZView in sideelevation of the 9o reduce the heightor. ceiling of "the ascendingapparatus shown in Figi l in association with heated air to as great anextentas possible an orchard on substantially level. ground, so as toreduce the volume and rapidity of a "Fig. .4 is-a view similar to FigureB and influx of cold air'fromthe surrounding'areas illustratingthe'application of the apparatus which replaces the heated air, and thiscan be to an orchard on sloping ground; and, i accomplished only bymaintaining a low av- Fig. I is an .enlargedyertical sectionalerage-temperature throughout the orchard, view of the apparatus. to H I,which temperature issufliciently high to pre-. Referring speclfically tothe draw ngs, Z111; vent the damaging effectsof frost upon thefwhich'similar reference characters de's1gnate i I similar p'arts'ineach o f'the-several views, my'JQt fruit.

ing an upper-limit to which air can rise as Mor'e specifically; my;methodgand appa- 65 r i so Qered relation as "s ow in Figure so thatinvention in its present embodiment comprises a heating unit illustratedas a conventional type of smudge pot P (Figure 5) cm bodying areceptacle adapted to contain a quantity of fuel oil, and having anupright stack 11 through which the hot gases ofcombustion are ordinarilydischarged into the atmosphere, as will be understood by those familiarwith the-art. 'In carrying my invention into practice, I provide abranch stack S in the present instance in the form of 7 an open endedpipe-12 having a side opening 13 intermediate its ends, surrounded, bycollar 14 snuglyreceivingand secured to the upper extremity of the stack11Vto support" the stack S from the smudge pot at a slight V inclinationto the horizontal so that when the through an: opening 17 closed by aremovable smudgepot is resting on the ground in an orchardone end ofthestack constituting ani'nlet 15'will be lower Vthanits other end whichconstitutes an outlet 16.

The manner in which the heating method .embodyingmy invention isperformed with I 1 the formof apparatus above described is as followsiii I Let-it be assumed that a number of the V smudge pots having branchstacks S applied" thereto, are-arranged in an orchard on level ground,one in advance of the other in rows as shown in Figure -'1 orinalternately stagthe branch/stacks S arein substantial parallelism andincline upwardly in one and the same'direction. .VVith quantitiesof'fuel oil supplied fto" the receptacles 10" and ignited cap '18, itwill be clear that the hot gases of combustion rising-through the stack11 of each} smudge pot, will-'pass into the branch stack. Sand dischargefrom its 0utlet'16, thus creatinga draft in the branch stack Scausingair to besucke'd into the stack through its inlet 15 and be mixedwith and heated by h t gases of combustion. 1

" Due to the arrangement of the branch stack 8 one in advance of andparallel to 7 each other, a large majority of: the heated air vdischarging'from the outlets 16'of "each stack 7 can be .nopermanentaccumulation of air at through-the inlets -15 of the branchstacks of the" first smudge'pots of eachrow. ;As there Cjand nopermanent diminution of air at D due to the tendency' ef air toequalizein pressure, the heated air at C upon reaching its c-eiling'is caused toflow from'region U' to region D as indicated by the arrows B in Figure 3rather than the heated air at C flowing to remote regions and the air atD being drawn from remote regions, as this latter mode of functioningwould require such a long period oftirne t-hatthe direct flowof air fromC to D would take cprrference; Thus although the air flowing from C to Dis warmer than the' airw hich has not been'heated, it is colder than theair discharging from the branch stacks of the last smudge pots of eachrow, so that the rising currentat C must be compensated for by thedownward current at D. The vortex indicated'by the arrowsA and B willthus be created and the same 5 air willtrav erse the cycle repeatedly-.except ior such small amount of unavoidable I the heat applied to theairwillbe conserved mixing with extraneous unheated air. Thus exceptforthis'j-small amount of mixing and I radiation to the atmosphere.

' Additionalvortexes"indicated by the arrows E in Figure 3 and includingeach branch stack S will also be created, as the inlet 15 711 of eachbranch stack will draw in air from the regions, which condition alsoexists with regard to the inlets of the branch stacks of each row increating the general vortex: indicated immediatevicinity ratherthanfrom' remotef l by the arroWsA-and 'B'asabove-described; Inaddition, all the'heat discharged into i the orchard will tendtomaintain the general vortex injthe direction fromthe lower end of eachbranch stack to the upper-end, as the kinetic energy is conserved, sothat a mi i mum temperature difference between theair at the groundlevel and the air at the ceiling V of the vortex will bejobtained withthe-ad-' vantage of conservingfuel while heating the air to a relativelylow temperature, suf ficiently high to prevent thedamaging efi'ects of'frost upon the fruit. 5 i

V In the application of my apparatus to an, orchard on sloping ground asillustrated in Figure 4,itwill be clear thatthe. natural" drift ofheated "air up the slope will facili tate the maintenanceof the-vortex," fo r it will be clear that a large volume of heated air willbe discharged into the region at the upper end of the slope as indicatedat F in Figure 4 and will initially be withdrawn from 'theregion at thelower end of the slope as indicated at G in this figure. Asthere can beno permanent, accumulation of 'airat F and no permanent diminuation ofair at G;

consequently air must flow away fromregion F' and into region G astheequalization of pressures is accomplished by a practically direct nowof air from F to G, for ifthis were notso, air from Fwould have to becarried to remote regions while'air G would have I to be broughtfromremote regions, and would require such a large interval of time that thedirect flow from F to G will have prece which has not been heated, it isnevertheless colder than the air rising towards F and consequently therising current of air at the uppermost branch stacks must be compensatedfor, to a large extent by a downward current of air at thelowermost'branch stacks. The vortex above referred to will be createdirrespective of whether the orchard is on sloping or level ground andthe same air will pass through the cycle repeatedly except for a smallamount of unavoidable mixing with extraneous unheated air. As a result,the heat once applied to the air will be conserved except for this smallamount of mixing and tor radiation to the upper atmosphere. It is onlynecessary that the branch stacks be disposed at a slight inclination tothe horizontal to illsure that the unidirectional circulation of air inthe form of a vortex traveling in substantially a vertical plane andhaving a relatively low ceiling, will be created and maintained so longas sufficient fuel is burning in the smudge pots to heat'the air in theorchard} to a low average temperature, suificiently high to prevent thedamaging effects of frost upon the fruit.

Although I have herein shown and. de-

scribed only one method of and one form of apparatus embodying myinvention, it is to be understood that various changes and modificationsmay be made therein without departing from the spirit of the inventionand the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. Orchard heating apparatus comprising a heating unit having a mainstack and an inclined branch stack communicating intermediate its endswith the main stack and having an air inlet at one end and an outlet atits other end for the discharge of hot gases of combustion.

2. Orchard heating apparatus comprising a heating unit having amainfstack, and a branch stack communicating intermediate its ends wlththe main stack and having an air 4. Orchard heating apparatus comprising7 a smudge pot having an upright stack, an

open'ended pipe constituting a branchstack and communicatingintermediate its ends with the upper extremity of the upright stack, oneend of the pipe constituting an inlet and the other end of the pipeconstituting an outlet for the hot gases of combustion I 7 from thesmudge pot and being higher elevation than the inlet. 5. Orchard heatingapparatus comprising disposed atja a heating unit, and a stack intowhich hotgases of combustion from'the unit are disp charged, the stackhaving an air inlet and an outlet for the hot gases of combustion, re-

mote from the air inlet in a horizontal direction andat a higherelevation than the air inlet.

NEPHI W. CUMMINGS.

ioo

inlet and an outlet for the hot gases of combustion, disposed at ahigher elevation than the air inlet.

3. Orchard heating apparatus comprising a heating unit having a mainstack, and an open ended pipe constituting a branch stack commumcatingintermediate its ends with the main stack, one end of the branch stackconstituting an air inlet and the other end of the branch stackconstituting. an outlet for the hot gases of combustion from the unitand being disposed at a higher elevation than the 7 air inlet.

